Curry Barker's Obsession Screams Loudly for His Generation

A young music shop employee struggles to express long-held feelings and, in frustration, breaks open a novelty gift that grants one wish. The wish object promises a single wish, but the outcome spirals into horror and chaos. The film’s premise draws from the classic “be careful what you wish for” idea, with direct inspiration from a horror-themed animated episode involving a monkey paw. Despite a $1 million microbudget, the execution supports the concept. The movie earned over $90 million in theaters after a May 15 release, including a stronger second weekend, showing strong word-of-mouth momentum, including through short-form clips.

"Obsession begins, as mentioned, when twenty-something music shop employee Bear (Michael Johnston) flounders in his attempts to tell Nikki (Inde Navarrette) that he's loved her since grade school. It definitely doesn't seem like she thinks of him as more than a friend (a fact confirmed later in the film), and in a fit of frustration and despair he breaks open the novelty gift he'd gotten her: a "One Wish Willow" that promises to grant one wish to the user - just one."

"We've seen 'Be careful what you wish for' tons of times. But we've never seen my version of it. Barker continued. At 26, he isn't old enough to have seen "Treehouse of Horror II" when it first aired in 1991; he instead brings a young man's confidence to Obsession, a certainty that "my version" of the idea is still worth exploring."

"Which, thanks to some sharp execution on a microbudget level ($1 million!), does prove to be the case. The box office reflects this, as Obsession has earned over $90 million in theaters since its release on May 15th. Most impressively, it made more in its second weekend of release than it did in its first - proof that word of mouth remains a powerful force for movie-goers, even if that word of mouth now comes in the form of TikTok clips."

"The second installment of The Simpsons's Treehouse of Horror series, in which "Bart gets a monkey paw and causes a bunch of chaos," as he explained in a September 2025 interview with Variety. "We've seen 'Be careful what you wish for' tons of times. But we've never seen my version of it," Barker continued."

Read at Consequence